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Icons of Holy Protomartyr
Alban of Verulamium (now called St. Alban's)
feast day: June 22
St. Alban was a pagan
inhabitant of Verulam in central England. In the mid-3rd c., but others
say the beginning of the 4th c., he accepted and sheltered a Christian
priest fleeing the Roman persecution. The priest was found out, but St.
Alban arranged a swap of clothing allowing the priest to escape.
Brought before the judge, St. Alban confessed Our Lord Jesus Christ and
was condemned to be beheaded. On the way to execution, when the crowd
that was following to see his death came to the river Ver, he prayed
and the waters parted so all could cross. His executioner, Heraclius,
was converted and suffered with St. Alban. Just before his earthly end
St. Alban prayed and a spring arose from the spot. Verulam is now
called St. Alban's, the site of a magnificent Benedictine monastery in
earlier times.
Top Icon: by the hand of
Aidan Hart, United Kingdom (Oecumenical Patriarchate)
Next
Icon: by the hand of Mother Justina, Greek Old Calendar convent of St.
Elizabeth, Etna, California, with permission.
Next Icon: available from Holy
Transfiguration Monastery, Boston.
Next Icon: by the hand of
Nicholas Papas, Come And See Icons.
Next Icon: by an unknown
hand.
Next Icon: by the hand of
iconographer Elizabeth Hudgins.
Bottom: Icon by the hand
of Hieromonk Cassien, Greek Old Calendar Church, Clara, France (at the
very bottom is the Shrine of the saint at St. Alban's Hertford).
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